Microsoft is bringing real desktop apps to Windows Smartphones!

Microsoft has promised to have Windows 10 be the OS for all devices, but using it on a phone or small tablet meant you couldn’t run traditional desktop apps. Say goodbye to that fact today.

At its WinHEC event today in Shenzen, Microsoft announced that desktop apps are coming to ARM processors – the kind in basically every mobile device – through a partnership with Qualcomm.

It’s a very big deal actually. These apps aren’t just the Windows Universal Apps, instead, they’re the full-fledged productivity program that is programmed for a desktop. It means a full desktop version of Office, Photoshop CC, and other apps you might know. It also means Windows 10 games. And according to Microsoft, developers won’t have to change anything about the apps themselves to make them work, which is definitely a great idea, not giving developers a shit in re-porting their apps to that platform just to work.

Though Microsoft and Qualcomm are using an emulation process, this video shows a Windows 10 running smoothly on a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with 4 GB of RAM.

But, Microsoft is still going to push the Universal Windows Platform, because UWP apps are generally more power-efficient, touch-friendly, and scalable than the legacy x86 software. Running x86 apps will likely almost surely require huge amount of power on your phone and making you dock several battery banks/power banks when you use them.

And Microsoft’s ultimate vision for Windows 10 as an OS for all hardware is starting to come together. They also say these ARM-powered devices – which it seems to be calling cellular PCs now – will arrive ‘as early as next year.’

Just wow if this thing really came up to our hands. Thumbs up Microsoft!